Renewables Ride Wave of Success as Prices Fall and Spending Jumps

“The last months of 2014 have seen the crossing of a momentous milestone in the world of energy, with consequences of historic proportions: large-scale tenders in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, North and South America have brought the indisputable evidence that solar power has zoomed past cost parity with other energy sources.” Thierry Lepercq

Thierry Lepercq, President of Solairedirect

The FT (not always the most robust supporter of renewables) confirms the inevitable and that’s that solar and wind can compete even in oil rich regions. Pilita Clark of the FT reports:

“The past five months have been full of heartening news for the renewable energy industry which has grown used to the opposite.

Instead of the subsidy cuts, bankruptcies, trade rows amd investment dips that dominated the sector three or four years ago there have been record levels of installations, surprising price falls and a welcome surge in spending.

Global investment in renewable energy bounced up the first time in three years last year to $270 billion, a 17 per cent rise from 2013, the UN Environmental Programme reported last month.

A $75 billion boom in solar power installed in China and Japan drove part of the surge along with a a record amount of offshore wind farm investments in Europe.

But the more interesting aspect of the $270 billion spent last year, that does not include investment in large hydropower plants is the record amount of so-called modern renewables it helped fund.

“Solar and wind are about to gobble up market share around the world.” Says Thierry Lepercq, chairman of Solairdirect, a fast growing French Company that has 57 solar parks built or under construction around the world. “We’re generating power at lower prices than other energy sources in Chile, India and South Africa,” he says.”